Sleep First, Then Dream
by Daze Rivers
Summary: AU Oneshot of Tamaki's host club pitch going very differently. Kyoya Ootori had never screwed up this badly in his life. Kyoya Ootori did not screw up period! So why was this the second time he ended up on top of Tamaki with spilt tea and broken cups everywhere?


**A/N:** Feedback is of course, appreciated, the more constructive and detailed the better.

"Kyoya, I just had an incredible idea!" Tamaki was beaming ear to ear. He was sitting under Kyoya's kotatsu and had looked like he was dying to tell Kyoya this all evening. "Let's form a club." Kyoya listened as he walked towards with their tea.

A host club.

The very idea was laughable. Kyoya adjusted the weight of the tray in his hands. The heat seeping into his fingers. It was too warm in here really, with the heating and the kotatsu and now the tea, and now Tamaki and his ridiculous ideas. He should ask the maid to turn the heat down, Kyoya noted before rolling his eyes at Tamaki's ridiculous idea.

"Sleep first, then dream." Kyoya lifted his foot and pushed Tamaki onto the ground. The blond laughed and Kyoya smiled and then he felt his foot slip. It slipped off Tamaki's shoulder and onto the ground. Kyoya lost his balance and fell, tea spilling everywhere, cups breaking.

Kyoya remembered the last time he had been on top of Tamaki with spilt tea and broken cups. He had been infuriated and riled up.

Now he was just embarrassed. Kyoya tried to maintain some dignity but his turtleneck was sopping and he had a leg on either side of Tamaki's waist.

Tamaki turned his body so his full back was against the floor and was that _really necessary?_

Tamaki moved his legs and brought up his knees and then tried to sit up and Kyoya was suddenly straddling his best friend, his only real friend, and he could not move. Tamaki furrowed his brow and frowned looking at Kyoya but Kyoya did not react.

He screamed at himself to move but instead he felt his friends legs just behind him. Kyoya's own legs were in an awkward position anyway, he could have been kneeling had it not been for Tamaki underneath him.

Tamaki underneath—No, that was not a thought he wanted to have. Kyoya leaned back for leverage, digging his toes into carpet, scrambling for purchase. He tried to stand up and felt right back down, his back sliding down Tamaki's things.

Tamaki was blushing, that awful flush face and neck blush.

Kyoya did not blush.

Tamaki sat up straighter and Kyoya tried to lean away from him. He should just ask Tamaki to put his legs back down and then Kyoya could just try to stand the same way he had last time.

Kyoya could smell Tamaki from here, he must have been wearing cologne or something. It smelt good, really good actually, but mixed with the tea the scent was…

"Kyoya?" Tamaki waved a hand in front of his face. Kyoya blinked and adjusted his glasses realizing they were splashed with tea. The smell of tea was almost cloying at this point. Kyoya's abdomen felt wet and much too hot and Kyoya realized Tamaki's hair was plastered to his face by tea.

It was almost…

"Kyoya? Are you okay, did you burn yourself are—"

"I'm fine." Kyoya pushed his glasses further up his noise, hoping to avoid eye contact. This was humiliating to say the least. "If you could just put—"

"You know, that's what you get for stepping on me! The universe doesn't like it when perfect beings, such as myself, get—"

Kyoya shoved Tamaki's face's away from him and Tamaki laughed. His face was less red and Kyoya smiled for a moment. "Save that for, what was it, the host club?"

Tamaki sprang back up, abdomen muscles tensing underneath Kyoya and wasn't that a terrible reminder of his position. Kyoya wanted to squirm.

An Ootori did not squirm.

"We'll get the Haninozuka-senpai and Morinozuka-senpai and—"

And Tamaki was too close. Whatever he smelt like was too strong and Kyoya was alreay too hot, sweating under his turtleneck, he did not need another body so close to his own. Tamaki however seemed perfectly cool.

What an odd reversal. But was it a reversal really?

Kyoya knew he should be getting up, that he should interrupt Tamaki's rambling and tell him to move his legs but Tamaki was so animated, so excited, with his ostentatious hand gestures and his tea stained blond hair and his stupid blue eyes and what was that smell anyway?

Why would Tamaki wear cologne just to hang out with Kyoya? Or, maybe it was just shampoo or body wash.

Focus. Kyoya cleared his throat.

"You'll need to move your knees for me to get up."

"Where you listening to me?"

"Well I heard—"

"You heard me talking?" Tamaki was smiling. He was still blushing. A drop of tea, or maybe sweat rolled down his face and Kyoya reached for it without thinking.

He should _really _call the maid to clean up this mess.

Kyoya's hand froze a hair's width from Tamaki's face. Tamaki froze.

Kyoya needed to stand up right now. He needed to call the maid and get changed and ask someone to turn down the heat in his room before he passed out.

"I-are you blushing?" Tamaki sounded incredulous.

Kyoya was not blushing. Ootoris do not blush.

Kyoya leaned forward and opened his mouth to say so. The tea had made his glasses wet in parts and foggy in others. Odd, fog only developed when the air outside was cold and his room was boiling.

"What shampoo do you use?"

Tamaki blinked.

"Or soap or—"

No! This was not what he wanted to talk about.

"I don't know? The non-scented kind usually. I'm sorry if I smell, I think its just sweat.

Kyoya blinked. Part of him was pressing the urgency of getting a maid and cleaning up this mess and getting the hell off a Tamaki. Part of him was wondering how on earth that smell could just be _sweat_ and surely it had to be his laundry detergent or _something_.

Kyoya frowned and pressed his lips into a firm line.

Tamaki was blushing harder now.

"A-Anyway! We'll get the twins from second year, for our club! The host club!"

The host club.

Kyoya's attention snapped back to situation and Tamaki was much too close and he was clearly sweating. Not perfectly cool like Kyoya had thought earlier. Kyoya wondered if Tamaki's skin would be warm to the touch.

Kyoya wondered if his skin would taste like tea.

No-that-no that was the kind of thought that-it. Kyoya looked at Tamaki's lips and then back up at Tamaki who was watching him.

Kyoya had never imagined in his life that he would fuck up this badly. He could hardly imagine how he could screw up and embarrass himself more.

He tried to stand again but his wet socks slipped on the carpet and he fell back on Tamaki.

Their foreheads smacked together and their noses touched but there was no accidental kissing. This wasn't the movies.

From this close Kyoya couldn't get see Tamaki's mouth but he could feel Tamaki's breath on his lips and it was too much and he was too _close._

Kyoya leaned the tiniest bit forward, angled his head and ghosted his lips over Tamaki's before he even thought about it.

Tamaki squeaked. Panicked, Kyoya pushed Tamaki back down, stood up and bolted up the stairs to change his socks and sweater.

"You just…" Kyoya could hear Tamaki muttering but he ignored it.

Kyoya's heart was beating in his ears and he threw off his sweater and socks. He rushed to his en suite and wiped down his chest.

When he looked in the mirror his face was red.

Kyoya took off his glasses and replayed a version of the last few minutes that involved him not majoring screwing up.

He could have let Tamaki finish explaining, agree to consider it, smile, sip his tea, maybe cast a side ways look at Tamaki who would be smiling and buzzing in his seat.

Kyoya wiped his glasses first with a towel and then with the appropriate cloth. When he put them back on he was relieved to find his vision clear.

He had almost forgotten Tamaki was still in his room but he certainly remembered when he came out of the washroom to Tamaki sitting on his bed. His collar was soaked in tea and his cashmere sweater was speckled too but it was his left thigh that seemed to have taken most of the tea.

He would need a change of pants.

No.

"I suppose I should offer you a T-shirt until the maid can clean your attire but I'm afraid I—" Kyoya thought never carefully about how he would phrase the next part of this sentence. "You'll have to keep everything else on, I doubt I would have any pants what would fit you."

Kyoya did not look at Tamaki and instead walked back down the stairs to his wardrobe.

"You kissed me." Tamaki's voice sounded unsure and uneasy and Kyoya hated it. They had just become actual friends and Kyoya had ruined it in four months. At least with Kuze it had taken considerably longer to ruin their friendship.

But he's never been attracted to Kuze.

Not that he was necessarily attracted to Tamaki, but Tamaki was undeniably a very attractive, very flirty person with no concept of personal space and usually before puberty it was normal to fantasize about dating your friends to a certain extent because the mind was just experimenting with different concepts of different types of relationships and intimacy and maybe Kyoya was a bit old for that but he hadn't had a long of real friends so it made sense that his could be was—

"Why did you kiss me?" Tamaki's voice was so small.

Kyoya gritted his teeth and opened a drawer looking for a Tamaki-sized T-shirt. Tamaki was unlikely to take the hint and stop talking.

Of all the times for Tamaki to take this seriously, it had to be now. It, it wasn't like Tamaki should be nervous anyway. It wasn't like Tamaki could like him. Tamaki liked girls.

_Bisexuality_, Kyoya's mind whispered but Kyoya ignored it and he ignored Tamaki and he ignored everything.

"Was that you first kiss?" Tamaki was suddenly a lot closer and a lot louder than he had been and Kyoya jumped. Kyoya expected him to look coy or sly or like he had with any of the various girls he had charmed but instead Tamaki looked serious and contemplative.

"What does it matter?" Kyoya reached into his drawer and pulled out a T-shirt at random, handing it to Tamaki before looking for one for himself.

"It was my first kiss."

Kyoya almost snorted.

"Well, my first real kiss, cheek kisses don't count obviously."

Obviously.

Tamaki sounded very serious and Kyoya's insides turned. Kyoya needed to get control of the situation. He was cool and level headed and this embarrassment would end. Kyoya's heart was still pounding and he was still sweating but he wasn't as hot.

Kyoya found and a shirt, stood and turned around. Tamaki was in his boxers pulling Kyoya's T-shirt over his head. It was too big around the shoulders.

Kyoya looked. Of course he looked. But it didn't mean he didn't hate himself for it.

"I thought I asked you to keep your pants on?" Kyoya's voice was level but his word choice was so wrong.

"Hmm?" Tamaki furrowed his brow and then shrugged. "They had tea all over them, besides, shouldn't the maid get them washed with the rest of my clothes?"

What had Kyoya ever done to deserve this? Sure he had been manipulative, but he hadn't gone around kicking puppies and pulling the wings off of flies!

"Kyoya, I," Tamaki closed his mouth and looked down. "Why did you kiss me?"

Kyoya wanted to say something snarky. "Why does anyone kiss anyone?" or "shouldn't it be obvious?" but both of those meant things he didn't want to say. That weren't true.

Kyoya held the shirt in his hands and quickly strode to the couch were Tamaki's clothes were. He picked them up and left his room. He called a maid and explained the situation, apologizing for knocking over another tray of tea. The maid smiled but looked a little uncertain.

When Kyoya got back to his room he realized he'd given the maid his new clean shirt as well.

Kyoya steeled himself outside the door, considering a plan of action. He would not let this get away from him like falling for Tamaki had. On. Falling _on_ Tamaki had.

He could just tell Tamaki to forget the whole thing but Tamaki wouldn't take well to that. It would be clear Kyoya was keeping secrets, clear Kyoya was drawing the metaphorical line in the sand between them and their friendship.

A lie would be better.

Kyoya paused for a minute thinking of a believable lie for why he had kissed Tamaki.

Why had he kissed Tamaki anyway? Because he had just been there and Kyoya had sort of wondered what it would be like?

Was that why Tamaki had asked if that was his first kiss, would be believe Kyoya had just had a lapse of judgement and been overcome with curiosity?

That would probably raise a lot of questions later bit for now it would be a good solution.

Kyoya opened his door looked around. Tamaki was on his bed flicking through The Fellowship of the Ring. He was smiling and Kyoya suddenly remembered being nine and reading The Fellowship of the Ring in English for the first time, being determined to get through it. It had been much harder than the hobbit and Kyoya had scrawled copious notes in his tiny nine-year-old handwriting.

Tamaki laughed softly to himself. He looked like he belonged there in Kyoya's bed. Like it was not Kyoya's at all and instead Kyoya was the one intruding on a quiet scene of someone reading before bed.

Kyoya climbed the stairs to his bed slowly.

He crossed his arms and fixed his posture. He walked slowly towards his bed and then sat down at the corner. Tamaki would surely feel the slight dip.

Kyoya looked and waited for Tamaki to look up, to look back, but instead he kept smiling and flipping through the pages. He was lost.

Kyoya's mask tightened and he wondered if Tamaki could still see through it, like he had four months ago.

When Tamaki did look up, he seemed surprised to find Kyoya there.

"I didn't hear you come in." Tamaki sounded almost sheepish. He put the book on Kyoya's nightstand and then folded his hands in his lap.

"You should take a shower actually, wash the tea out of your hair. By the time your out I'm sure your clothes with be fine."

Tamaki only nodded and smiled.

"I didn't know you liked Lord of the Rings. We should have a marathon some time! I bet that would be so much fun! We could make a sleepover out of it!" Tamaki's hands were clasped in front of him and Kyoya found it hard not to smile.

He said nothing.

Tamaki's expression waned. Tamaki climbed off the bed and Kyoya was surprised he didn't spring, didn't bounce, didn't jump. He seemed calm.

"It had just been a morbid fascination Tamaki." The words stuck in his throat unspoken. "It didn't mean anything.", "I trust you, so I suppose my guard was…" was what?

The moment had passed anyway. There was no need to bring it up. It would fade soon enough.

Tamaki walked to Kyoya's bathroom and began fiddling with something. Kyoya could hear bursts of water and a muffled shriek.

"Kyoya!"

Kyoya approached slowly arms still crossed. He walked into his bathroom as Tamaki, dripping, blushing, shuffling from side to side, looked down.

"I don't know how to work the showerhead."

"I'll show you."

It should have ended like that Kyoya thought. This should be the moment where the new chapter begins weeks later. The moment had passed, the tension had been resolved, a flash forward would be good next.

Instead the scene did not end and Kyoya showed Tamaki how to turn on and change the temperature of the showerhead and then—

"Do you like me?"

Tamaki's epiphany had evidently come while Kyoya was away.

"It-it's fine if you do since—"

"We're friend's Tamaki, of course I like you." Kyoya refused to met Tamaki's eye and instead fiddled with the showerhead knobs. "Don't mistake my actions from anything more then they were. I was obviously not thinking, and let morbid curiosity get the better of me. I'm sorry for any discomfort I have caused you but I assure you, you have no need to worry. I'm not gay." Kyoya smiled like he smiled to everyone but Tamaki frowned.

Kyoya wanted to be convincing but he didn't even convince himself.

Kyoya stopped smiling.

"In your book you wrote, that you wanted to marry—"

"Well Samwise is a fictional character and I was nine, I hardly understood what marriage was. Like I said, you shouldn't read too much into things." Kyoya was about to leave. But Tamaki grabbed his shoulder.

Tamaki was blushing and rubbing the bad of his head.

"You-I."

"There's no need to make this complicated. I said, I am sorry for any discomfort I caused you."

"You could do it again if you want."

Kyoya froze. Kyoya swallowed. Kyoya looked at Tamaki's lips then back to his eyes and then cursed himself for being obvious.

Kyoya liked to think he was cool and collected. At the very least few things phased him. Girls flirting with him did not phase him but that was because he knew they didn't know him, knew they only saw a pretty face and instead fell in love with someone who was just a front to a real person. They didn't really know Kyoya, and so, they weren't really flirting with _him_.

Tamaki however, knew Kyoya.

"Don't be ridiculous." Was all Kyoya could manage. He thought about his family, thought about Tamaki's family. Kyoya had just decided to start trying, really trying and he couldn't afford to throw a wrench it, he couldn't afford to just take the easy way out and forsake his position in his family. He just couldn't afford it.

His father would understand on a personal level, but business was business and Yoshio Ootori would not risk making his heir someone like Kyoya.

He could afford even less to like Tamaki.

Tamaki merely stared at him in silence, walking closer until they were face to face, close enough to kiss.

Neither moved.

Kyoya looked at Tamaki's neck, he watched Tamaki's Adam's apple as the blond swallowed.

"I would have probably married Aragorn." Tamaki said. "If I had the choice of course. I couldn't compete with Arwe." Kyoya looked up briefly, eye brow raised. "I mean, he was the classic Hero you know?"

Kyoya opened his mouth to saw something and then closed it.

"But I still liked that he ended up with Arwen." Tamaki exhaled through his noise and Kyoya felt it on his cheek. He could step back at any time. Or step forward. The choice was right there, easy to make.

"Even though she gave up immortality?"

"What's a life that you can't choose compared to one you can?"

Kyoya laughed.

"Enough philosophy for one day," Kyoya stepped back. "Take a shower and then when you're finished and your clothes are dry you can talk to me more of this stupid host club idea of yours." Kyoya felt more himself now. He breathed in and he could still smell Tamaki but that was fine. Kyoya was in control now. His heart was still thudding painfully and his insides still turned but the sensation had numbed somewhat.

Tamaki smiled and hugged him. Kyoya could feel the water, cold on his chest where it dripped from Tamaki's (his own) shirt. He could feel Tamaki's smooth cool skin, could feel Tamaki's breath against his neck. But he didn't react. Kyoya pulled away and smiled and stepped back.

Kyoya would leave and the two of them would never speak of this again. They would start their host club with whomever else Tamaki had mentioned and Tamaki would soon be too caught up with girls to remember his first kiss. Kyoya felt sick.

Tamaki stepped forward and Kyoya knew Tamaki was never one to forget something as romantic and sentimental as a first kiss.

"Are you sure you don't have a crush on me?"

Kyoya rolled his eyes. His stomach was turning agonizingly again and his heart rate was speeding up, it beat hard in his chest, raw and painful. Tamaki only smiled.

"It's okay. I like you too." And then Tamaki leaned in and pressed his lips to Kyoya's. It felt oddly underwhelming. Just a press of skin to skin, soft sure, but there were no spark's or tingling sensation.

Then Kyoya felt it, not fireworks, but a slow wave of relaxation rolling through his muscles. His stomach unknotted itself briefly but his heart kept hammering. Reminding him of the situation, the whole situation. Of his life and his future and his safety.

"Make Middle Earth a safe place for me to live and I will grant you my daughter's hand."

"I think you mixed your character up, you said make Middle earth safe for you so then are you Arwen? But then you said—"

"It-nevermind. Take your shower."

Tamaki smiled and kissed Kyoya again. And again. And at least several more times pecking lightly all around his face and Kyoya wanted to laugh and cry in equal amount.

"You reek of tea." He said instead and this time he did leave.

"That's not a very nice thing to say to your boyfriend!" Tamaki called back and Kyoya knew Tamaki shouldn't be shouting these things, that anyone could hear them.

"Middle Earth is not safe yet. Sleep first, then dream."


End file.
